


West of the Portal

by Cuofeng



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-10 01:17:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7824502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cuofeng/pseuds/Cuofeng
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years after the Earth Empire's invasion of the United Republic, the Avatar has organized an International Conclave near the spirit portal crater to forestall future global conflict. Or try to. In fact, Korra and her staff mostly deal with the press and the public, complainers and flubs, and not actually having the legal authority for any of this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
Min Liu stumbled slightly as her shoe caught the edge of an unevenly raised concrete paving slab. That cracked piece of sidewalk was covered in the omnipresent tan dust of construction and demolition that still coated all of the old Republic City downtown. She hoped that she had not just scuffed the heel as she had spent an embarrassingly large percentage of her last paycheck on these shoes. That was a paycheck that had been received an uncomfortably long time ago in a place she was no longer welcome to return to. She just had to hope that today went well.

  
Talking a sharp steadying breath, Min ran her hand through her black hair, newly short in the modern style. A snip and a cut to mask how truly unprepared she was on this day. Shake it off, she told herself. Feeling self-pity was not why she had come all the way across the bridge into the center of the city that was just recovering from being a war-zone. Newly resolved, Min clutched her patent leather handbag in front of her, a gift from a generous family member since there was no way she could have afforded such a thing herself. She made her way through the crowds of workmen and construction equipment that clogged the street. Her destination lay at the end of this particular skyscraper lined street, a new massive bamboo-scaffolding draped building who's upper domes were still being built. As her shoes clicked and scratched on sidewalk and grit Min took another deep breath and coughed slightly on the dust that hung in the air. That building on the edge of the city crater was where the real challenge would begin.

  
That was not to say that even getting to this point had be easy. It had been two years since the war and the last rubble-filled areas of the devastated former downtown had supposedly been open to the general public for eight months. Those who rode the rattling trolleys with Min over any of the river bridges looked out at those tall buildings on the other side of the water looming like reborn landmarks. Their outer stones and bricks had been scrubbed clean of scorch marks. Republic City looked almost as it had before, however Min knew that many of those buildings many were still husks, intact facades held together by hastily bent bands of metal rather than by interior floors. They stood awaiting their own demolition while new construction grew up in plots cleared by destroyed structures. The air smelt like dust and old smoke mixed with the salt of the sea.

  
The trolly line itself abruptly terminated three blocks from edge of the old city center. Min had climbed out at the end of the tracks along with the endless stream of construction workers and the smartly dressed ambitious entrepreneurs who had snapped up redevelopment property made available when the national government had relocated to the river's other bank. People were moving everywhere as business and industry reclaimed this wounded heart of the city. Still, despite the commotion, it was not likely Min could manage to get lost searching for her destination. Even in the bright morning sun the tip of the peninsula had an erie light. The walls of the concrete canyons were painted with strange glimmerings from the pale spike of energy that lanced from the ground to the vault of heaven.

  
Min had arrived, surging past the constant stream of trucks and workers that clogged the streets, to reach the most significant piece of new construction in this rebuilt downtown. It was near the center of the lower peninsula, where the busily shifting cityscape gave way to the vast vine-filled spirit crater amid the skeletal frames of new buildings. The impossible pillar of light from the portal formed a focus that the once devastated city now revolved around.

  
Her destination was the huge low building growing out of a gap in the heavy barrier fence that surrounded that verdant crater of the doorway to the other world. It was the headquarters of the Avatar, a large multi-winged stone affair that Min assumed would be beautiful when it was finally visible from under the crawling mass of builders that scaled the scaffolding wrapping around every surface. Yet even now the young building had majesty, and Min found herself freezing in place at the foot of the wide marble steps that led up from the dusty street. But standing where she was almost got her run over by an overloaded wheelbarrow pushed by a tanned and cursing laborer so she scampered up to the entrance, to advance within those halls armed only with a typing certificate and an assurance that Uncle Sang had 'talked to someone'.

  
The men in their white and blue uniforms stood rigid at the threshold and did not seem to pay her any interest, but still Min clutched her bag tighter against her stomach as she made her way through those heavy doors. It was quieter there in the main lobby than it had been on the street, though not by much. In the interior distance of building hallways she could hear the echoing cries of earth-bending and other construction. Everyone who was not a White Lotus guard nailed to their post seemed to be walking very fast and there was a constant stream of traffic across the three-way intersection of corridors that capped this entry hall.

  
For lack of a better idea of how to proceed, Min made her way to a small desk that was set in the middle of the marble floor of this first room. It was staffed by a small woman who seemed to be somehow simultaneously writing in an entry book, typing a letter, and answering the four phones which each rang approximately every fifteen seconds. As Min shuffled up in front of the desk a steady flow of smartly dressed figures of both sexes passed by to each side and all received a permissive wave from the receptionist who could apparently confirm identity from the sound of footsteps alone since she never once looked up from her work.

  
As she stood there being ignored, Min began to wonder if she was supposed to make her own way into the halls to find the typing pool, or if there was a separate entrance for the clerical staff. Indeed, she had just raised one foot to turn and go off searching for one or the other when the receptionist's attention suddenly snapped up to meet her.  
"Without credentials you need to be signed in before you can pass beyond the security threshold. Your name please." The receptionist's voce was calm and smooth but spoke with such rapid authority that Min found herself answering before her conscious mind had even processed these statements.

  
"Yes! Min Liu, mam. Um, I was here about..."

  
"Really!" A new voice rang out as it launched its way into the bustling entrance hall. "Is really it too much to have one blessed day where our own people don't make me want to start tearing the walls down?! I told you we need a new girl!"

  
Min jumped at the sudden shouting, and was quickly embarrassed to note that no one else in the room reacted at all except with suddenly blank faces hiding amusement or exasperation. At the end of the hall a man in his mid thirties, snappishly dressed in a bright blue brocade silk jacket and a sharply trimmed mustache, swept out from one of the open passageways while continuing his theatrical performance. Half a head taller than most and rather thin, he loomed like a brilliant wading bird racing through reeds. He was trailed by a blank faced young man who held an armful of folders and the brunt of his boss's undirected and well gesticulated ire. With his free hand the assistant adjusted the black rimmed glasses on his face and responded in a reproachful tone as their shoes clacked together across the marble floor.

  
"Staffing problems have been an ongoing concern, as you know, but we have a replacement already coming in this morning. She should be-"

  
"Well where is she!?" said his boss in the flashy jacket. "I've got a stack of telegrams piling up and seventeen reporters trying to fit in space for fifteen. It's not like we're choosing a new Earth King here! The people just need to...Well, they just need to show up! Which is apparently really difficult! I really could do with anyone. I mean come on, just look at...er...You!" He suddenly stopped walking and spun around before pointing an interrogating finger at Min.

  
Min quickly looked behind her before gesturing to herself in confusion. "Me?"

  
Her well-dressed interrogator sighed the sigh of those beset by an unjust and frustrating world. "Yes, you. Can you type, take shorthand, and manage to not flub reading a communiqué so badly that you reignite a thousand year old land dispute between feuding hill clans?"

  
"Er, um, yes, yes, and I suppose? I mean I don't really know how I would go about even-"

  
He threw up his hands. "Excellent! Then why don't you work for us?"

  
"Actually, I am here about the job for-," Min began to explain.

  
The man suddenly cut her off, his face brightening. "Hey, she's here already! Hiro, what were you doing making me sweat like that when she was waiting in the lobby? Well come on then Miss, this is a global world. I'm director of communications Chao Wang and we don't have all day."

  
Min stumbled over her words. She had not expected such a welcoming committee, or indeed any welcome. "Um, actually...I mean I haven't signed in or..."

  
Chao waved his hand vaguely at the reception desk. "Yes, that's a great system or it would be if we actually knew who was supposed to be in this building yet. Which as you can see is a bit more of a problem than it should be." Then he saw someone and his attention was instantly redirected off down one of the branching hallways. "Aoto, my beautiful man!"

  
Min took a few hesitant steps forward before a gentle hand pressed against her back guided her up to the proper walking acceleration. She twisted back to look the assistant Hiro who's unreadable face nevertheless expressed a wish that she quickly get with the program if she was going to be here. Soon, Min was racing along an unfamiliar hallway behind Chao's well-dressed one man cavalry charge. The man appeared to be permanently stuck in a higher gear than those around him. Min's understanding of her situation had been left behind at the building's entrance but wherever she was being taken no one seemed to be giving her a second look so she had to assume she was permitted. As she rushed along she wondered if now was the time to pull her typing certificate out of her purse.

  
However, before she could work up the nerve to do so her new keeper's expansive presence had come to envelop a harried-looking older man with greying hair and a waist trending towards stout who had entered this main arterial hallway from some side passage. If Chao was a colorful egret this man was a grumpy grey owl, feathers permanently rumpled and ruffled. This newcomer appeared to be futilely gesturing that he had somewhere else to be but a silk sleeved arm caught his shoulder and his trajectory was arrested.

  
"Chao, I really need to get to..." the man began.

  
Chao, Min's prospective employer or pressganger as the situation might yet reveal, did not appear to hear this beginning of an excuse. He had other things on his mind. "Aoto, did you hear this insanity about the Fire Nation this morning?"

  
The older man, Aoto as Chao had called him, rubbed the bridge of his nose wearily as he gave up thoughts of escape. "Yes, I understand that it sounds bad, but you...my comments were taken out of context. What I was trying to say was that-"  
Chao interrupted, "Wait wait wait. What comments?"

  
Aoto stopped, suddenly looking up at Chao with guilty suspicion. "What were you talking about?"

  
These men were on the same side, presumably the Avatar's but at this point Min was not sure. The International Conclave was in this building too. She just had to hope she had not accidentally signed onto working as a typist for some foreign country. That would really stretch her commute budget.

  
Chao spoke quickly. "The Fire Nation's contribution gift came in late last night and it's not what we were expecting. But one more time, what comment?"

  
With a weary sigh of one who saw this confrontation coming, Aoto reluctantly explained as he absently brushed his greying beard. "All I said was that with all this concern about careful distribution of reconstruction contracts so that everyone gets a share and no one is offended blah blah blah, the United Republic would be better off if they just stuck to the Fire Nation firms for the metal work suppliers. They're going to do a better job anyway and have less political influence here than the domestic companies. Less potential for graft that way."

  
Chao threw his hands up in the air again. "Of all the bloody...Aoto?!"

  
"Well it's true!"

  
"That's not the issue! The papers is going to go wild with that statement! What's the point of having a communications director if you are making communications without me there to direct? The political advisor should not be talking to the press!" Chao took a breath to collect himself. "All right. All right. Who did you say this to?"

  
Aoto mumbled, "Riu of The National Times."

  
"The....!?" Chao choked, before waving his spread palms before him. "I can not deal with you right now. And on the same morning I have to give a press seat to the Verrimedia rep."

  
Now it was Aoto's turn to look flustered and disbelieving. "Verrimedia as in Verrik? As in Iknik Blackstone Verrik? That man's been indicted more times than I've had hot dinners and we're giving that guy a seat?!"

  
"That particular comparison might say more about your own dining habits than about him."

  
"My wife is not an ambitious cook."

  
Chao waved his hand, trying to get back on track. "Well that aside, what am I going to do about the Avatar's political advisor championing preferential treatment of foreign firms? We can not afford this becoming the story."

  
Min came to her senses, realizing that it seemed she had been completely forgotten in the midst of this strange hallway-meeting. She was still slightly dazed at the rapid back and forth chatter that these two men fell into with total lack of concern for their surroundings. They seemed competent, but the entire building had an air of someone who was making up procedure as they ran along, Uncertain of her place, Min found herself only absently mumbling responses to questions she had not been asked under her breath. However, someone must have heard her speak because she suddenly once again felt a hand at her back and found herself pressed forward into the narrow space between the verbally sparring managers.

  
Aoto stopped in mid sentence to look over at Min with blinking confusion. "Er, yes? Chao, who is this?"

  
Chao was leaning forward slightly to inspect her closely as though there was something on her face he had missed before. "No idea. Now what was that you were just saying? I heard 'you ought to' and 'bidding'?"

  
Min's lips were pressed together in a tight terrified line as her eyes grew wide. These were two very high ranking men and they had heard her mumbling. She had been in the building for all of five minutes and had now managed to basically stumble over implying she was smarter than her bosses by blurting out her thoughts on issues she knew nothing about. Why couldn't she have kept her mouth shut? She shot a dark glance at the ever impassive Hiro. The assistant simply stood quietly behind her and betrayed no sign of just having pushed her. Oh well, the damage was already done. She might as well take the plunge.

  
"Well, sirs," she began. "All I was saying is that if the Fire Nation companies are really better at this like Mister Aoto said, then it might be possible to just blank out the location information from the bidding? Make it so no one is able to say they were chosen for any political..."

  
"Blind bidding." Chao said softly. Then he be began to smile "Yes, wait, that might work. I mean we have no authority to even suggest it, but when has that stopped us? The Fire Nation firms should be able to underbid the UR firms we have a problem with. We come out for blind bidding in UR redevelopment contracts and...Ha! We could even phrase it as a way to counteract any charges of favoritism to Future Industries based on their connection with the Avatar, not that the reporters want to directly touch that issue with a ten foot pole anyway." Now his eyes were starting to gaze out into the imagined distance and his voice took on a performance quality. Hiro manifested a notepad from somewhere and began transcribing Chao's spontaneous monologue.

  
"Just the best work for the best price! And of course the excellence of native industry would shine through once your removed the glimmering trappings that have so enraptured many politicians. Those who troll for votes in the immigrant neighborhoods where..."

  
Aoto turned away from Chao to speak with Min. "He's on a roll now, we may have to leave him to it. That was very quick, Miss...?"

  
Min blinked as she was still listening to Chao spin off webs of crafted rhetoric to an imaginary audience while his assistant Hiro quietly converted it to a few quickly inked key words on his notepad. Then she remembered that she had been addressed. "Oh, Min Liu, sir. And I did not actually mean to suggest that I thought it was my position to tell anyone what to..." She stopped and gathered herself. "I am actually here about the typing..."

  
The Political Affairs Director waved her off, "Don't worry about putting yourself forward. We are in the early days of being an organization here so everyone wears a lot of hats." He glanced over. "Ah, it looks like Chao is finally coming in for a landing."  
The communications director was verifying that his assistant had gotten the key points of his extemporaneous performance and seemed to have forgotten the other people standing in this hall.

  
Aoto was the first to speak up. "Didn't you say you had a meeting with the Verricorp rep this morning?"

  
"Yes, but that is not until..." Chao looked at his expensive wristwatch. "...two minutes ago. Perfection. Now I just have to find the room I scheduled this meeting to take place in. I swear they move this building's walls around at night. I've got to run. Aoto, you make sure to give Future Industries the heads up we're doing this!"

  
Aoto was not happy with this new task assignment. "So we're actually doing that? And I'm the one to tell the Avatar's...Do you want me to stick my head in any gatorlion mouths while I'm at it?" But even as he grumbled he was nodding and turning to go. "At least we're about to hand her company a nice check for that airship contract. Thank you Fire Lord's timely donation money. I'll check back in with you later."

  
Now Min was left in the hall with Hiro and Chao, wondering if she should find out what exactly this bidding process she had crafted policy on was actually about. Chao once again remembered her existence and as he absently smoothed his jacket he turned his questioning back Minward.

  
"I'm sorry, I got distracted. What was I having you do before?"

  
It took Min a second to find her voice. "I really don't know, sir."

  
"Well whatever it was, forget it. Follow me. This morning is just chaos. It's not normally this bad. Though at least I am not on the team trying to figure out how they are going to dock a new Fire Nation airship on this building when our mooring spire is not built yet. Hiro! Keep your eye out for the Chrysanthemum room! I know it has to be one of these doors right here."  
Chao strode off through the busy halls of the Avatar's headquarters with Min and Hiro trailing behind him.

...

Minutes later and far away, the three of them continued to search through the arteries of this building which was still struggling to emerge from its architectural chrysalis. Most of the windows were covered in protective boards or only showed lashed bamboo scaffolding outside so Min had long since given up on keeping her notions of orientation. The hallways were broad and spotted with alcoves that would probably hold ornaments or artworks at some point in the future but for now were bare save for little brass nameplates on each of the doors themselves. They had just uncovered the Juniper room and the Maple room and were about to continue on their quest for the illusive meeting place when a large set of double doors at the end of the hall burst open and a young man in a green trimmed suit came striding out, holding his hands before him as if he was pushing back an invisible crowd.

  
"Whooo! Do nooot go over to the International Conclave Wing right now. Trust me, she is in a bit of a mood."

  
Chao responded warmly as the man drew closer. "Ah, Bolin, perfect! Would you happen to know..." Then he caught notice of what exactly had been said. "Wait, she's in a mood? What did she hear?"

  
The young man stopped in the hallway and absently ran a hand through his thick black hair before he seemed to notice he was messing it up and tried to hurriedly repair the rumpling before giving up just as quickly. For someone who worked in an intensely political organization his thoughts were written plainly across his face.

  
He shrugged broadly at Chao, "You know how it is in the Conclave, the same as always with the Earth Nation. The separatist republicans are fighting with the unionist republicans who are fighting with the monarchists who want to execute the imperialists who are insulting the commonwealth supporters. By now I think she is one more outburst away from deciding the level the whole continent herself and starting over from scratch."

  
Chao seemed relieved. "Ahh, so just the normal situation." His assistant Hiro handed him a small sheet of paper which jogged something else in Chao's memory. Min supposed that Mister Verrik would have to keep waiting for his meeting as all their momentum was thoroughly lost. "Ah, yes, here this is. Did you hear about the message from Chin?"

  
Bolin said, "Who's Chin? Or wait, Chin the province? Or rather the 'provisionally autonomous region' now I guess."

  
"Or kingdom or pile of rubble depending on what she decides in there. Yes, that Chin. Apparently they are about to get hit by big storm or hurricane coming in off the ocean. They have word from some Fire Nation vessels cabling it in but even with time to prepare it still looks like they are going to be taking it in the teeth." Min was excited. Chao was finally talking about the kind of work she had imagined went on within these walls. This was about helping people all across the world, matters of life and death and all that other stuff she had always assumed the Avatar dealt with.

  
Bolin, however, was still muttering to himself about what he had seen through the doors to where the Conclave met. "She said that breathing fire was an accident but I am not sure the Zaofu rep believed her even though we extinguished him right away."

  
Chao clapped, "Bolin, hey! This is aid work, this should have been coming across your desk."

  
"Yes, of course." He shook his head. As he focused his face grew serious and intent in thought. He moved over to lean against the wall. "Sure we can get them help down in Chin. My department's got a good store of relief supplies built up and actually with that new airship we are going to be getting I should be able to get my team down there for the reconstruction before the place finishes drying out. The rest can be sent on rail from Omashu once we can survey what kind of damage we are actually talking about from-"

  
"Oh, actually our airship just came in today. But they are not asking for your team, they want the Avatar."

  
Bolin blinked. "Really? It came today? I could have sworn that Asami was still working on... All right, we may actually be able to swing this. Showing up personally for the reconstruction would cheer people up. This session of the conclave is ending this week and I think we may be able to clear her schedule, though she really needs to get a new...." He trailed off as a new idea occurred to him. "The weird thing is it might actually be quicker to send her through the portal so when she exits in the south she can make her way up on bison-back. I think she can control where she goes when in the spirit world. Man, these logistics are really weird but I can ask Opal if the Air Nation could..."

  
Min got the sense Chao was deliberately keeping a straight face through Bolin's rambling through process. He waited for a small band of workmen laden with tools to make their past before he interrupted. "No, they don't want the Avatar to help with the reconstruction after the storm. They want her to stop it."

  
Bolin halted. "Stop...it? The hurricane? They want her to stop a hurricane. A hurricane. A hurricane that is hitting land in, what?"

  
Hiro chimed in. "Seven to seventeen hours."

  
"Seventeen hours! A hurricane! What...What do they think we are here? And they are just cabling with this now?" He exclaimed, as though the worst part of this impossibility was the poor scheduling.

  
Chao was now openly smiling, though somewhat ruefully. "I suppose one of the problems with working for a god is that people expect miracles."

  
Bolin smiled a little as well, but he was less cheerful. "And the thing is, when we tell her, she might try to do it."

  
This had occurred to Chao as well. "Let's let her terrorize the delegations for a while longer. It is a long way to Chin."

  
"Yeah, but if she..." Bolin started to say before something occurred to him, "... if she hears this evening then even she wouldn't have a chance of making it there before the storm." He turned his broad shoulders back towards the wide double doors which hid the way to the Avatar. "You're right. I'll have the guys start getting the relief supplies ready. Sometimes this job is not the best.."

  
Chao clapped him on the arm, "I have something that might be a little sweeter to you. I'm finally having to give a press seat to your friends over at Verrimedia. They might be excited to meet the Hero of the South?" He looked around the web of intersecting hallways that had stymied him. "Or I will be if we can ever find where they put the Chrysanthemum room."

  
"Chrysanthumumum? But aren't all the flower rooms on the north side of the building? We've just got trees over here like oak and spruce and ash. Is Ash a tree? I think Ash is a tree. I mean at least trees can turn into ash, you know if you use fire or some-"

  
Chao clapped his hands loudly, making Min jump. "You're right! We have heading, let's set out on this voyage! Bolin, you shall be my navigator! This lovely lady, the vigilant lookout! Hiro, you can be the keel."

  
Hiro bowed his head magnanimously. "Thank you sir."

  
"Right, then we're off!"

...


	2. Chapter 2

...

Min found herself walking through the corridors of the Avatar's headquarters sandwiched between the elegantly coifed and manicured Chao, and Bolin who despite his well tailored suit looked like he would rather have his sleeves rolled up and his rough hands dirty. Next to Chao's slender, towering height and Bolin's suggestion of thick muscle under those sleeves, Min felt small and unprepared. She was also belatedly recognizing that she was not going to be taken to the typing pool. Something about this man named Bolin was familiar though, and not just in the archtype of well-meaning muscle he represented. Min was absently examining his face, poking at her memory when he noticed her staring at him. Min quickly looked away and tried to not blush at being caught acting so ditzy. Of course, as she did so she managed to trip herself on a strip of carpet at the top of a staircase Chao had just begun to descend.

  
In the slow moment as she felt herself falling backwards over the lip of the stairs, Min just had time to wish she was knocked out clean so she could get a fresh start on this day which had rapidly spiraled out of her control. But before her head cloncked into pleasant oblivion, strong arms caught her and she found herself once more looking up into Bolin's face.

  
Suddenly she had it. "I know who you are! You're Nuktuk!" She exclaimed triumphantly.

  
Bolin smiled. "Ah, you saw me in my movers did you?"

  
"No! Not one!"

  
"Oh," said Bolin, the wind abruptly taken out of his sails.

  
Min was still being held at a nearly horizontal angle. "Um, but please don't drop me all the same."

  
"What? Oh, sorry!" said Bolin, helping Min to back to her feet in a burst of apology.

  
As she got her feet back under her felt she needed to explain. "No, you see there were a lot of posters all over the city for those movers but I was very busy, and..."

  
"Hurry up you two!" called Chao from the bottom of the staircase, having missed the entire near-death interlude. "Even if this is Verrik's man I can only keep him waiting for so long." As Min hurried down the stairs to fall back into rapid stride with Chao she found the Press Secretary glaring at an approaching door with apprehension.

  
He adjusted his shining cufflinks. "Ugh, that Verrik. I can't stand the man. He is just so flamboyant and excessive I could just kill myself right here and now!" But with that he pushed open the door and was suddenly all glowing smiles. "I apologize profusely for the delay. With the construction we are still settling in here and I..." Min saw his smile catch.

  
The room was of about twice the size of a normal office and arrayed in an official looking format with one tall chair behind a desk and an arc of smaller seats before it, all lit by a window mercifully unobstructed by scaffolding outside. A lanky Water Tribe man with wavy hair and a long garish coat sat sprawled in the big chair, his expensive leather shoes kicked up onto the desk. Min guessed that was Chao's desk.

  
The seated man made an expansively dismissive gesture. Everything about him was loud and brash from his clothes to his voice. "Not at all! I've just been poking around to see what it was that Verricorp's donation paid for in this place you're building. I saw that you guys decided to go for the pneumatic system for your intra-office messages. You've been bamboozled! I know those tubes might play on her airbender tradition but this expensive dooda is nothing compared to what I've been cooking up. Imagine, if you will, your walls filed with thousands of hungry..."

  
"Mister Verrik!" Chao was still projecting warmth, but now it was the warmth of a steadily approaching lava flow. "So glad you could join us! Surely though, you understand that Verricorp's contribution to the Avatar's cause does nothing to entitle you to get whatever-"

  
"Oh, of course not. I don't expect to get anything for that. It would be completely improper for me to expect to benefit derive any benefit from gifts made by Verricorp. I'm with Verrimedia you see, different company, completely unaffiliated with any other enterprise which may or may not be under investigation for anticompetitive consolidation in whatever many countries that are so rude about things like warrants for arrest."

  
Min had frozen in the doorway when Chao stopped walking, not sure of what she was supposed to be doing and so was now pressed into the frame as Bolin made his own way past her. He was grinning broadly but had a skeptical eyebrow raised. "Really, Verrik? Your name is on both companies, and you are saying you're only the CEO of Verrimedia now? Give us a break."

  
Verrik jumped out of his purloined chair with unnatural energy. "Bolin! Excellent, now it's a party! And you are perceptive as always. Indeed I am also Chair, Executive, Board President, and Managerial Magnate Supreme and Plenipotentiary of Verrimedia corporation and international holdings." He held up a land to his mouth for an aside. "I tried making myself a Duke but apparently the national charter has something to say about self-awarded titles of nobility. Ridiculous!"

  
Chao was not to be out off by blather and made his own attack. "As my colleague said, surely you don't actually expect us to believe you have no affiliation with a firm that shares your name. Zhuli Verrik, president of Verricorp, is your wife."

  
"Yes and no. Yes in that she is the love of my life, my heart, my soul, my everything from now until the end of time, and no in that what we sent to the registrar's office was not technically a marriage certificate but actually a complex web of asset sharing agreements and ad hoc consultation contracts that under close inspection do not actually fit the legal definition of-"

  
Chao had quickly seized his vacated chair and now ran a hand across his brow in exhausted frustration. "Mister Verrik, why are you here?"

  
"Hmmm? Oh, right! I just popped over with my buddy Yong to make sure he got settled in all right. Yong! Stand up man, this is the Avatar's press secretary!"

  
Min and Bolin both jerked with surprise at realizing that there was another person in the room. He was a drab, grey man with dark slicked-down hair sitting quietly in one of the corner chairs and somehow managing to blend in remarkably well with the upholstery in both color and manner. He stood up smoothly and continued to say nothing as Verrik paced around the room.

  
"I thought I might as well come in with him," Verrik said. "I had a free morning and there have been some problems in the past with our credentials." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

  
Chao sighed. "For the last time you can not issue yourself credentials to our building."

  
"I was being proactive! The news moves fast. Yong! Sit down, you're making everyone nervous looming back there! Where was I?"

  
Bolin volunteered, "Basically, admitting that you're just here to bother Chao?"

  
Verrik thrust out his arm to point at him. "Right! Sharp as a tack this kid. Speaking of sharp how are you doing? They ground you down to a powder here yet with the giving away money to freeloaders bit they've got you roped into?"

  
"It's the Office of Aid and Development actually, but yeah, I'm really liking it. Matter of fact, right now I'm working on-"  
Verrik interrupted, "That's peachy! You're looking good, my man. Things still going well with that Beifong airbender girl or is that pretty little thing hanging out behind you something I shouldn't be mentioning?"

  
Min sputtered in offended protest but her reaction was still far less than Bolin's who whipped his head around, terrified as if the entire press corp was going to burst out of the walls in that instant. He yelled out, "Whoa woah woah, no! No! Everything with Opal is great! Great great great and please don't say otherwise to anyone! _She hears things._ "

  
Verrik strode over and clapped the younger man on the back before hooking his arm around his shoulders. "Great to hear! But now comes the next step. Snagging a Beifong was a good move but you have to lock that down! I'm telling you, marriage opens a lot of doors. I can even get you a great deal on the ring, I just acquired a jewelry store. At least I think I did. Anyway, I have a pile of gemstones on my desk and I'm happy to help!"

  
"That's very, er, nice." Bolin began awkwardly, looking very nervous as he plucked the arm from off of him. "But marriage is not exactly what we're doing right now and anyway you just said that you are not really married to Zhuli. What are you doing championing marriage?"

  
"Champion shmampion," Verrik said dismissively. "You say potato, I say premium potato flavored additive substitute soon to be on the market from Verrifoods inc. But think about it. You're not going to stay here at this feel-good collective forever, and when you do change venues a married man projects stability to the average Li on the street. The people really respond to that stuff."

  
Now Bolin was starting to get defensive. "Hey, I like working with the Avatar crew. It gives me a chance to help people without, you know, accidentally ending up working for an aggressive conquering warmonger."

  
Verrick wiggled his fingers in an equivocating way, "Let's just say I've met the Avatar and that is not the best comparison you could have chosen since she may have just not gotten around to it yet, but I see your point. But I'm helping people too! I'm entertaining, I'm explaining, I'm briefly hydroplaning but only because I forgot to slow the car down on that left turn this morning and I've already paid for that fence. And Yong here is going to help me reach even more people with The Truth!" He struck a triumphant pose for some audience only he could see.

  
Chao wearily interjected himself. "Once again I object to your newspaper's name in the strongest possible terms. The hypocrisy is borders on obscenity."

  
"What's to object? I'm breaking no laws. You know what they say, truth and advertising!"

  
"That's not the...There is an exclamation mark in the masthead! Page three is just pictures of women in clingy dresses!"  
"Well, you've got to reel the people in before you can hit them with the heavy stuff. It's not like we're fluff. Right now we're running an ongoing story about those unscrupulous profiteers who took advantage of the war to snap up blocks of old downtown real estate for peanuts. Scandalous!"

  
Someone new to the conversation piped up and said, "Whereas you went just outside the city and snapped up miles in Nanxiang village real estate. Almost like you knew the president's sprawl plans a week before they were announced and the land prices there skyrocketed." It was not until everyone was looking at her that Min realized that had been her own voice. Wow, she really needed to work on not doing that.

  
Verrik was now examining her suspiciously. "Who's your friend, Bolin? She's not with the trade ministry is she?"

  
"No, she's a new hire, works for us," Chao said.

  
"Oh, well in that case, spot on lady!" The suspicion was gone in a heartbeat and Verrik moved in close with uncomfortable familiarity. "Good eye! Oh, and if you are thinking about leaving this do-gooder stuff behind to move that sharp noggin out to the hip and happening city of silver lights, open auditions for screen and radio start at nine every day and I have a new residential development opening next week full of prime opportunities at reasonable rates for a promising first time homeowner about to make it big. Pretty gal like you could easily be star in beautiful Nanxiang, the Town of Tomorrow!" Min found Verrik's arm around her shoulder and the other spread palm waving to some vision that was supposedly appearing before her eyes. She looked around the room for some offer of help.

  
Chao decided it was his duty to extricate her. "If you are done trying to remold my people in your trustworthy image, perhaps we can get these credentials out of the way so we don't waste any more of your precious time. Bolin, weren't you preparing something on the Chin issue?"

  
Bolin took the hint. "You're right. I'll get right on it. I just need to get the papers from Ming, and the papers from Inuksuk, and the papers from...man this job has a lot of paper," he said with a sigh.

  
"Take Jin here to help carry some of that stuff, just send her back when you are done." Chao said gesturing to Min. "Miss Luo, bare with us and I'll get you to your proper job in communicants soon enough." He was gentle and polite but his gesturing was actually more like shoving in the speed with which Min found herself outside the room.

  
She tried to interject herself anyway. "Um, actually sir, it's Min. Min Liu. And I am not here for communications I am actually supposed to be in the typing... and the door is closed."

...

Bolin casually gestured for Min to follow him down the green-walled hallway and bereft of options she complied. As they headed off to some other location within these bowels of the Avatar's headquarters he began to speak to her in an apologetic tone.

  
"Sorry about Verrik. When you first meet him he tends to come off as a little...extreme. But when you get to know him...Well, he's still that way but you like him a bit more."

  
Min shook her head. "No, it's fine, I just...I have a bad habit of speaking my mind when I really shouldn't."

  
"Hey now, that doesn't sound like a bad thing. Just honesty."

  
"Well, honestly, there is a reason I'm here looking for a new job."

  
Bolin considerately looked away. "Ahh, gotcha. Will say no more." Then he crossed his arms in thought. "Hmmm, ok. First I need to go to Amishiq's security office to clear with her about coordinating for the Chin mission; she likes to be the one who talks to Yushin about Lotus deployments. Oh, and then I should probably find Aoto to get the political slant before I have the proposal ready for Korra." He was counting off his mental process on the fingers of one hand and his eyes were distant as he twisted his mouth to the side.

  
In her sudden moment of shock Min's foot caught on the floor again but fortunately this time she managed to catch a hand on the hallway wall did not go tumbling. Bolin did not seem to notice her near crisis and that did something to help her embarrassment. It was very surprising to hear someone so casually refer to the Avatar by her given name. Well, Min supposed it should not be a shock given that these people worked in the same building but all the same it was like hearing her mother or father referred to by their first names. Somehow, even though it was reasonable, it just seemed wrong.

  
Then Bolin ducked to the side and they were through another set of large double doors. Min felt a distinct change in the atmosphere here. The rest of this half-constructed building that she had seen so far was characterized by a pervading air of barely contained chaos but here for some reason it felt more, well, ordered. Even the clerks at their desks were dressed more severely and sitting up straighter to the clack-clack sound of typewriters. Min was not sure what they did here but apparently it involved a lot of maps on the walls. Bolin made his way straight back to the rear of the space where a secretary sat at a desk positioned just to the side of a large, heavy door in the middle of the back wall. That door was left partly ajar to show a middle-aged woman inside working away at her heavy wooden desk. Bolin seemed to see that woman too and he tried to look nonchalant as his path sidled off course enough to take him out of view. Min followed his lead and as she did she caught a glimpse of a suppressed smile on one of the clerks she passed.

  
When they reached the secretary's desk Bolin leaned over and rather quietly said, "Jin? Chao is working on a response to the Qin message that came in this morning and I'd like to take a reconstruction mission plan to the Avatar, so if you could just let your boss know that-"

  
"Bolin?" came a strong and authoritative voice from the open office door.

  
Bolin winced but composed himself as he answered. "Er, yes?"

  
"Get in here if you want to talk to me."

  
He quickly shuffled into view of the office and reflexively snapped into a salute. "Yes, general," he said as strode in.  
Min felt the amused eyes of the outer office populace landing on her so she slinked forward to follow close behind him, afraid that if she lost one of the few people who recognized her permission to be this deep in the building she would find herself thrown in some Lotus cell. Inside the office, a serious looking woman in her fifties who was placing her reading glasses down on the desk as she looked up from the message she had been writing. Just like all the workers in the room outside, her suit was dark, professional, and immaculate.

  
The woman sighed at Bolin's formality, and even that was projected with more force than Min thought she could muster in a yell. "I'm retired Bolin, and you were never in my military to begin with. Just say what you want."

  
"Of course Amishiq, sir." Bolin said, as he put his hands behind his back and slightly widened his stance. "We got a cable in from Chin province this morning. They say..."

  
Amishiq nodded and gestured to her side. "Yes, the storm. I got that too. Omashu will be glad for the water if enough of it makes it over the hills to the headwaters, but what I am really praying for is some of the south-plains rebel groups getting flushed out of those river canyons they have been holding up in. Of course, it's not like the local governmental forces are in the position to exploit that opportunity and what I've been hearing from the conclave wing does not give me much hope for that changing." She growled under her breath. "I could give that damn King Wu such a shaking. He just had to stir everything up just after it was all put back together."

  
Bolin seemed to be relaxing. At least he was slowly easing out of the military posture he had adopted. "Yeah, all that and, well, I was wanting to put together a proposal for helping with reconstruction in Chin where the storm looks likely to hit. I've already got a decent number of supplies built up in the warehouses but I..."

  
Amishiq was not done talking, venting some long building frustrations. "Gods and spirits, we're scrimping and saving here to be able to pull people out of the mud. Everyone asks for something but no one wants to foot the Avatar's bill." She gestured to one of the larger pile of documents on her desk. "I've got here on my desk a stack of intervention requests the height of my fist and the budget for my pinky. Bandits, spirits, blasted earth nation cities raising their own forces for petty long-burning feuds. The only one's who have been consistent with their funding contributions to us are the Air Nation but they are facing their own problem now."

  
This last detail alarmed Bolin. "Wait, what's happening with the Nation? Opal didn't say anything about any crisis."

  
"Relax son, this is the type of fighting done by lawyers, not that I would consider that much less dangerous." Amishiq drew forth a paper from one stack on her desk but as far as Min could tell she did even not glance at it. She continued from memory:

  
"Air nation land rights have been murky for as long as I can tell and for the last hundred and fifty years they've damn right opaque. Ha, no one had a problem with the ancient nomads claiming the skies before anyone had airships but suddenly airspace is getting mighty precious. Those grabby Earth provinces are getting sick of old nomad law. You know I have had two airship captains refuse to carry Lotus squads on deployment in the last month alone? And the airtemple lands have more delinquents than rent payers."

  
Bolin scratched his head. "I knew there were some issues about insisting on Avatar Right for passage, but I thought that the Temples had plenty of income. Aang struck some sort of deal for the acolytes with the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation way back when?"

  
Amishiq snorted, "Sure they were entitled to plenty, as long as they didn't bother collecting. But now with Master Tenzin folding his new forces into our faction's stated mission there are bills and a lot of the Air Nation's 'tenants' are claiming finders-keepers on the land they've occupied for a century. To top off the money worries, the Fire Nation is feeling a lot less guilty with their pursestrings nowadays." She wearily adjusted her glasses with a finger, sliding them further back along the bridge of her nose.

  
"Well, at least Fire Lord Izumi is signing over that big check for the Harmony Restoration anniversary. That should keep us running for a while." Bolin paused. "Or fifteen minutes. Heck, I don't know, I have no real idea of how much all this costs. I just hand my proposals to budget and see half of it come back with lines through the middle. Man, things were easier under Kuvira. Er, much more opressy and bad, but the paperwork was easier."

  
The thought came to Min very suddenly that there was something she should be saying here, if only she knew what on earth that was supposed to be. Something had sounded an alarm in her head, but it gave no hint as to what that meant. There was something tickling her memory; some detail she was missing although it should be obvious. Had she heard something or seen something on the ex-general's desk?

  
Amishiq continued talking to Bolin, oblivious to Min's internal struggle. "So, Chin, huh? You know, it would be very nice if we could get an airship to go through that spirit portal we have right behind us. It's a shame the tribes are getting all the supply benefits from theirs and we can't make use of the thing in our own city. The Avatar has been hesitant to allow that but I think she might be able to be convinced."

  
He nodded. "I was actually saying the same to Aoto, or something on those lines. A plan anyway. Speaking of, I need to remember to find him after I leave here so I can get him in on this as well.

  
Amishiq waved her hand. "Well, just stick around. He's been in and out of this office every half hour all day and he is due for his next orbit from Political Affairs any minute. In the meantime, is there any reason why your new assistant appears to be magnetized to your back?"

  
Min had been slowly scooting closer to the ex-general's desk each time the older woman absently gestured to some of the tantalizing documents lying there as she monologued. By now Min found herself on tip toes peeking over Bolin's shoulder. A shoulder which smacked her in the nose when he suddenly spun around in surprise.

  
"Oh, I am so sorry!...again," he said as Min squeezed her nose and waved off his concern, more chocked by embarrassment than by any pain. Bolin looked back at the commander, as Min assumed she must be titled. "Sir, er, Amishiq, she's not my assistant. This is...Lin? She's a new hire of Chao's and I was supposed to be borrowing her for a few minutes."

  
Min gently corrected, "Actually, my name is Min Liu and I'm not-"

  
A loud voice rang out from the office of clerks outside. "Fools! I am plagued by fools!"

  
"Ah, and there's our Sozin's comet now." Amishiq said, grateful for some other focus than Bolin and Min's babbling. "Aoto's here."

  
The voice from out in the main office quickly approached into easy hearing distance. "Xiaxia, do I have some sort of strange birthmark on my forehead that spells out 'give me your ridiculous problems'? Should I be seeing a dermatologist, or is this just some conspiracy to keep me from ever focusing on anything important?"

  
This new entrant did not have the same parade ground vocal projection of Amishiq but none the less had enough passion in his voice to create a momentary lull in the bustling noise of office work. Min peaked out the door to see the short, greying political advisor she had first met in the entrance hallway now striding in to Amishiq's department. He was followed behind by a much taller woman who was vainly waving a paper by his face in an effort to make Aoto see it.

  
Amishiq leaned back in her chair and steepled her fingers before her in anticipation as the grumbling drew closer. "Aoto, how nice of you to drop by again. It's been what, almost an hour? I was getting worried. What can I help you with?"

  
He burst through the doorway without slowing, his assistant ducking in after him. "Help? Ha! Oh, I need help. Do you know what I have been getting from President Raiko's office? Is it a response to my request that he moderate his inflammatory public stance regarding the bordering Earth Provinces? Is it that he is going to finally officially recognize the Avatar's sovereign claim of the portal land and this building? No, it's about some local lobbying committee demanding, demanding, that the Avatar formerly renounce her Water Tribe citizenship."

  
Bolin looked up in absent thoughtfulness. "Hey yeah, wait, she isn't actually a U.R. citizen, is she? Huh, I guess that I sort of forgot she would have a birth certificate somewhere."

  
"Oh, not just one, but two! Two certificates!" Aoto said, forcefully flinging up two fingers in what Min suspected had to be a rude gesture in some country. "Since that was before the Southern Republic split off, the North insists all the southern tribe members born then still have northern citizenship. Of course the South refuses to recognize those citizenships so if she was even going to make an announcement of renouncing whatever she has, someone is going to get mad when she mentions the wrong number of citizenships." He began to pace, throwing up his arms. "Oh, and she's in line to be a queen there in the north as well, so there's that!"

  
"I think the tribes have chieftains." Min quietly volunteered, and saw Amishiq's eyes flick to her with a faint smile.

  
"Kings, Khans, whatever!" Aoto said without showing any sign of noticing her. "These same lobbyist people are freaking out about the Avatar being anywhere near the line of succession to the North. Talking about undue bias, as if the entire rest of the world doesn't accuse her of favoring the United Republic."

  
Bolin mused, "Huh, right. I suppose she would be, what, fourth in line for the Northern Water Tribe throne? Palace? Chieftainship...ness?"

  
"Third, but the current chief is two people by bizarre Northern tradition about twins. As if that made this succession mess any less complicated." Aoto said with a growl directed, for lack of a more proximate target, at Bolin himself.

  
He flung up his hands. "Hey, don't look at me. I'm not in line to be anything. Eska and I were just engaged. Briefly. I mean I suppose that technically that might mean..."

Here Amishiq broke in. "Bolin, as fascinating as the political ramifications of your love life are, I think Aoto was here for some other reason?"

  
Aoto looked up, clearly surprised that anyone had bothered to keep track of what he was talking about. He vacantly took in Min's presence in the room with mildly bemused recognition as he replied to Amishiq.

  
"What? Oh, right. The reason I came over here. Chao's got it in his head this mourning to push Raiko over all the favoritism there's been in awarding contracts for the city expansion. He's talking about making a big deal of blind bids to offset this and maybe get the city good product instead of happy political donors. But that means we have to follow that blind bid rule too. Any acquisition plans Yushin has for the Lotus might get disrupted when the suppliers hear about this."

  
"And you are telling me instead of him because I just look so much like Yushin? Or because..." Amishiq paused, fishing for an answer.

  
"Commander Yushin is scary intense, Sir! Thought you might tell him, sir!" Bolin interjected. His arms twitched at his sides as if he wanted to salute.

  
Amishiq put her glasses back on as she leaned forward in her chair. "For the last time Bolin, we're civilians here. Or at least we should be, I don't know what we actually are."

  
She let out a heavy breath. "Well, I'll tell him. At least the Fire Nation delegation got here yesterday with our check so we can put in our airship payment to Future Industries before we have to deal with these new contract rules."

  
She then held up one of several newspapers on her desk and mimed reading it as she was actually smirking at Aoto. "Aoto, I bet that delegation loved you. There's a quote. 'Of course Fire Nation firms are going to do better'. I'm surprised they didn't drop a few extra zero's on the Harmony Celebration gift as a tip."

  
Aoto was chagrined but defensive. "Ah, I see you get the National Times. Yes, Chao has already, eh, spoken to me about that. But unfortunately for me I do not have time to get all your feedback on my performance as I am currently scheduled to head off down to Future Industries and tell the Miss herself that all her other contracts are going to have to go through blind bidding from now on. At least I can say we finally are ready to take delivery on that airship she has slaved over on personal design."

  
Then Min knew what it was she should have realized before.

  
She blurt out, "No, you can't. The airship that arrived this morning is... oh." Min had begun her interjection confidently, buoyed by the spirit of banter that was the order of business for this building and her excitement at finally connecting the dots, but it very quickly became clear that all the important people here had forgotten that she was in the room. Even Aoto's assistant who had not said a word looked at Min in astonishment that she was speaking.

  
Aoto turned to Min. "Um, what?"

  
Amishiq looked down at her desk as though she expected to have some file on this new girl sitting there. "Aoto, this is Mei."  
"Lin," Bolin corrected.

  
"Neither," Min sighed in recognition of what was by now a futile effort.

  
"Yeah, I know her," Aoto said to his colleagues, "I've been seeing her all over the place today. In the entry hall, and with Chao, and now here. It's like she's haunting the place. Has anyone one tested the theory that she is a ghost? I mean we got this land handed to us for free, is there any chance there was there an ancient nomad burial ground on the premises?" He chucked faintly at his own joke.

  
Bolin shook his head in full seriousness. "No she's solid, I hit her in the face earlier and caught her after pushing her down the stairs." He paused. "Accidentally. And anyway I don't think ghosts are actually involved with all the spirit portal stuff.

Although, I suppose I never directly asked Korra that." He tapped a finger on his chin as he considered this.

  
Amishiq said, "I think he was being facetious Bolin, although I will admit I do wish we could adopt your direct approach to spiritual issues more often."

  
"You can't pay for the Future Industries Airship!"

  
Min found herself panting slightly as sudden silence spun around her. Her exclamation had come out quite a bit louder than she had planned. Outside the office, the sound of typewriters had stopped as well. She felt her cheeks start to burn with the sudden and intent attention as she clenched her hand in fists at her side.

  
"Well, for a ghost she's got some lungs on her," Aoto said, blinking. "Now miss, what is this about us not getting an airship?"  
"Wait, that can't be. We already paid," Bolin broke in. "Chao told me that Asami's airship had already arrived."

  
"No, it can't have," Amishiq said. "I've seen our coffers and without the Harmony Anniversary donation we can barely make the minimum downpayment on something like that. Future Industries does not hand out product without seeing cash, no matter who the Miss is to the Avatar. But I thought the Fire Nation's donation money should have been logged by today."  
Aoto nodded. "Chao told me it had come in last evening."

  
This had been enough for Min. Everyone was already ignoring her again. She supposed by now she was an old hand at breaking into conversation.

  
She took a deep breath and spoke loudly. "The gift came in, but it wasn't money. It was an airship. The Fire Nation gave you an airship." For all the talking these people did it did not seem that anyone else had put together what they had been told.  
Bolin nodded his head kindly to her, "No you see, the Fire Nation is giving us the money to buy an airship. They are not the ones who are actually..." He trailed off as he noticed Aoto muttering to himself with a horrified look on his face.

  
"The contribution came in and it wasn't what we were expecting," he said in the tone of someone quoting their own execution order. "Chao told me that this morning. I had been thinking there was some issue with the amount but..." He trailed off.  
Amishiq tossed her glasses across her desk. "We told the Fire Lord we needed money to buy an airship so she bought us an airship."

  
"And I am in the paper today talking about how it is better to just hand contracts to the Fire Nation." Aoto said vacantly, still in a horrified daze. He looked out the open office door into the vague distance. "Oh, the Miss is going to kill me. We have a special contract with her for a custom design which we can't pay for and now she is going to kill me."

  
Bolin sucked air through his teeth in a nervous grin as he began to slide towards the door. "Er, well I guess I will just let you get on with that errand, Aoto. I'll come around later to show you what I have on the Chin proposal. Come on Meilin, I'll keep showing you around until Chao needs you!"

  
Min took a step at the sound of this new version of her name and was instantly blocked by Aoto's arm. "Oh no," he said. "If this little herald of my unhappiness is just getting a tour of the building then she is coming with me instead. Maybe Miss Sato will feel merciful if there's an outsider in the room."

  
Amishiq seemed to be darkly enjoying Aoto's discomfort. "I'm pretty sure there is some regulation against using new hires as ablative armor, but like I've been saying we're semi-civilians here so I suppose things might be a little looser. Welcome aboard miss, I look forward to working with you if you return."

...


	3. Chapter 3

...

Min gulped as she found herself passed off to a new keeper. Bolin looked sheepishly apologetic, but just waved as she was led off. Min once more vainly tried to explain that she was supposed to be at an interview for the typing pool but Aoto and his assistant Xiaxia were instantly deep in conversation about a slew of political issues that Min thought she had heard about on the news report. In this version politics sounded a lot more like quarreling teenagers than when it was being discussed on the radio.

They were sweeping through the building and suddenly they were through exterior doors onto the street being nodded to by White Lotus guards and Min found herself being gently shoved into a black Satomobile while Aoto slapped the roof and called out an address. She clutched her purse as she found herself sandwiched between the portly Aoto and the long legged Xiaxia who was constantly handing files and papers across Min's lap. No one was speaking to her and as she pressed her knees together tightly and stared blankly out the front windshield she wondered if it was possible she actually was a ghost. She certainly seemed to have lost all living agency since she walked up those steps this morning.

Shortly enough, her existential musings were brought to a halt as the car also halted and Min's forehead met the front seat. Trying to fix her hair and hoping that the bump had not left a visible red mark Min got out onto the sidewalk without noticing that only one other person had exited the car. It was not until Aoto slapped the roof again and his assistant sped off that she realized she had somehow taken Xiaxia's place at the man's side.

"Um, sir, er, your assistant, um, I think she just drove off," Min said weakly.

Aoto turned to her with his salt-and pepper eyebrows raised. "Yes it appears she did. Funnily enough, just after I told her to get back to the office. I thought you were the listener." But here he breathed and softened his tone a bit. "Don't worry, I'm not likely to need you for anything more than carrying some documents. Come on, my office called ahead so the Miss will know if we dawdled on our way here." He said as he gestured to the wide glass doors of the massive skyscraper in the heart of the rebuilt city.

The Future Industries skyscraper stood as one of the principle landmarks remaining in the old downtown, its metal peak having been somehow spared from the uniform height restriction inflicted on most of the other buildings by the Kuvira's spirit gun. Min supposed this meant the company had been able to stay open for business during the reconstruction and the resulting money was evident in the lobby. Her little black shoes clacked across the broad expanse of marble as she hurried to keep up with the deceptively speedy Aoto while at the same time craning her neck to see the various cars, propellers and even a dissected train engine that were set up as displays for curious entrants. They reached the golden elevator bank at the back of the lobby just as the brass needle swung down to the first floor light. Aoto did not even have to say anything to the lift-operator who nodded as soon as he saw Aoto removing his hat. Once Min stepped inside, the doors slid closed and the control lever was depressed all the way to the right. It looked like they were going a long way up.

In the quiet rumbling of this elegant little upholstered room Min leaned over to Aoto. She spoke a in a whisper. "Um, forgive me for asking, but why do you call Sato 'the Miss'?" 

Apparently she was not as quiet as she thought because she heard a brief snort of laughter that was completely smoothed from the elevator operator's face by the time she looked over. Aoto just sighed. "Well, part of it is that the words Miss Sato just sort of blend together when you are saying it all the time. And also the Avatar... Well, I am sure you can extrapolate." He looked uncharacteristically awkward.

Min looked at this statement for some sort of hint or clue but found nothing. She was genuinely confused. "Um, no, what do you mean? What about the Avatar?"

Aoto turned to look her in the eyes curiously. "Either you don't listen to rumor at all or you are a very delicate lier. Either way she might like you more than I thought. Come on, this floor is us."

He gestured her towards the opening door with his hat but that only served to make Min almost walk into the chest of the man who was waiting just outside. As she hurriedly backed up the man clasped his gloved hands in front of him and nodded his head respectfully to her. He gave Aoto, who looked equally startled by his abrupt presence, a deeper bow.

"Mister Aoto," the man said. "Please follow me. Miss Sato will be free to meet with you momentarily."

Min decided to, from now on, let Aoto lead the way but in the brief time she had been looking at him waiting for him to assume point position the gloved man had vanished from next to her. She looked around in surprise and shortly noticed this sudden servitor now across the hall holding open a massive three meter tall door. There was no sign of how he covered the intervening distance but if it turned out all the super-rich knew secret airbender tricks Min was not going to expose that bit of ignorance on her part. By this point in the day they could start juggling tortoise-geese and she would just smile and nod knowingly.

She did not know what she expected the the office of the head of a billion yuan corporation to look like, but she supposed she expected there to be fewer transmission systems stacked in the corner as discreetly as one can arrange a couple hundred kilos of greasy metal. That was not to say that the rest of the massive room was not exquisitely opulent. Min was pretty sure that a single one of those eight lacquered chairs would buy her apartment, and that massive dark wood desk could pay for Uncle Sang's whole business. Also she was pretty sure she had seen that scroll painting on the wall at the National Museum.

Aoto absently handed over his hat to the gloved man with a vague, "Thanks, Hangsook," and collapsed backward into one of the two quilted couches that sat facing each other in the the center of the room. To Min's marvel, Hangsook smoothly took the hat with a precise and well-mannered nod. That man was a servant! And better dressed than Min had ever been in her life.

Min was marveling out the vast plate glass window that took up one wall at the city spread out below when suddenly Hangsook took her hand and elegantly prestidigitated her down onto the couch as well. She first put her purse on the floor by her feet before nervously picking it up again, and after remembering that she just put it on the ground and so shouldn't place it on her lap she awkwardly placed it on a little end table by her arm. How was she supposed to sit here? She pressed her feet together and tilted her knees to the side. Was that what fancy ladies did? Oh, who knew?

"Hangsook! Is that him?" A woman called out from an adjoining room. "Ask him if he wants anything! I'll be out in a second!"

At least Min knew this bit of etiquette. She turned, murmuring her polite refusal of the offer since it was impolite to consume before the host arrived, but Hangsook had already produced a full tea set from some invisible spiritual plane and was silently washing cups in liquid from the pot, the steaming drops streaming down between the wooden slats of the set's platter. Oh well, Aoto did not seem to be bothered by any impropriety, and the offered tea was very good. Min took another sip just as one of the side doors to the office swung open and a young woman in a dark skirt-suit and shoulder-cape entered. A trail of smoke streamed up from a burned down cigarette smoldering between her fingers. When she saw them two from the Avatar's headquarters she exclaimed cheerfully:

"Aoto, good to see you!"

"Miss Sato, good to see you as well." Aoto had hopped up as the woman entered, however Min found herself holding a hot cup of tea and before she could figure out how to rise without spilling it on herself the woman was waving for him to sit back down. Sato tossed her head slightly, clearing some of her shining black hair from her face as she said, "Please Aoto, call me Asami. Even if you were one of Tenzin's recruits instead of mine you don't need to be unfamiliar."

Aoto made a deep noise in his throat. "If it's all the same I would rather not. There's enough trouble already in people accusing us of industrial collaboration. As you say, you did recruit half of the Avatar's office. We need every bit of unfamiliarity we can muster."

Miss Sato nodded and shrugged as she sat down on the opposite couch, crossing her ankles as she snuffed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the end-table. "Fair enough. What can I do for you today? Is the conclave going well? Last I heard she was getting a bit testy in there." Min supposed they were talking about the Avatar.

Aoto barked a laugh, "Yes, testy will say it. But that is not exactly what I came to talk to you about." Here he took a sip of his tea, buying him a few spare seconds.

"Would it by any chance have something to do with the fact that Cabbage Corp is today suddenly and hurriedly issuing a series of new bids to your offices with all their prices revised down by up to fifteen percent? Including some bids for contracts that I was under the impression we had already closed. Tell me, am I close to the issue?" she said with a steely smile as her statement was punctuated by the snap of her gold cigaret case flicking open.

To Aoto's credit he managed not to choke as Miss Sato's soft and kind voice went on the attack without ever perceptibly changing tone. "Erm? Are they? Well you see, some of what I came to tell you was that this morning, Chao got it in his head that it would be more cost effective if the United Republic began awarding it's construction contracts in a blind bidding process. An anti-cronyism measure. Of course to avoid hypocrisy our organization would have to adopt the same rules we're advocating, you see?"

"Hmmm," Miss Sato said opaquely. The tip of her cigarette glowed.

"I came here personally to give you the heads up on this new policy, a policy which I stress is not in place yet. I don't know about anyone having any communication with C Corp."

Miss Sato sighed, smoothly exhaling a cloud of smoke."It's ok, Aoto. I believe you don't. Cabbage Corp's crisis response time has gotten very good recently, even if their product has not kept up. Maybe turning over their advertising services to Verrimedia did actually help them streamline the business. Whatever it is I feel like I'm a step behind. As much as I hate it Verrik does seem to understand his industry."

"Um, Miss Sato?" Min said, and discovered to her chagrin that she was raising her hand like she was back in school, in front of a woman not more than a year or two older than her. "Mister Verrik was in the building this morning. The, uh, Avatar building. He was talking to Chao when I left the room. It might be possible that he figured out the bidding process and..."

Miss Sato put her hand to her forehead. "Of course he did. Aoto, you had better get Chao to make his statement quickly, or else Verrik is going to be saying that I pressured you to delay this new policy for my benefit by the time his papers hit the stands. He knows better than anyone that perception of the truth is often at least as important as the actual facts."

"Of course, I'll make the call from your lobby." He pursed his lips. "There is actually another issue I needed to talk to you about first. It's about the special order airship..."

"Oh yes," Miss Sato clapped happily. "It is all done but some of the stenciling. You are going to love it. I could actually send it out today if needs be. I saw the Harmony Restoration anniversary delegation came in yesterday with the money so we can get the paperwork knocked out of the way quickly."

"That's just it. The delegation did give their contribution, but they gave us an airship."

For a second Miss Sato was just confused, and the cigaret was left to smolder on the edge of the ashtray. "No they didn't. I was on the trip with Korra when she talked to the Fire Lord about her organization needing money."

"For an airship. So the Fire Lord got us an airship. A Steadylight Streamliner two-oh-one I believe." Aoto stopped as he saw the CEO's face darken. "But that is not the point. I'm making an appointment with the delegation right away to see if there is anyway we can liquidate this new asset. And if there is some problem with that, well Bolin and Amishiq have always been saying it would be better to have two airships than one." He gave a weak smile.

Miss Sato was holding a hand over her eyes while the other reached out for a cup of tea which was instantly materialized into existence by Hangsook. "But you guys can not afford two. The calculations work out much better for leveraging Avatar Right to secure competitive pricing on commercial transport. Ugh, this is a mess. Have I ever mentioned I hate these international understandings over a pot of tea and a handshake? But Korra always acts offended when I want her to lean more heavily on her legal team. At least Steadylight Inc. does good work." The cup of tea was held out again and instantly vanished in a flash of gloves, making room for a renewed assault against her cigarette.

Aoto gestured broadly, "We are working on this, but to be honest the office as a whole only noticed the confusion a few minutes ago. In fact, it was this girl here who put it together for us." To Min's alarm he was pointing at her.

Miss Sato leaned back in her couch. "I'm sure you are working. Well, you've got a smart new assistant at any rate. Oh no, you didn't replace Xiaxia did you? I liked her."

Aoto shook his head. "No no, Xiaxia is just back at the office. This is Chan, a new hire."

Min broke in. "Er, actually I'm not. I mean, this is my first day but I am not..."

Aoto paid her no mind."We've been looking to hire someone new ever since we lost Mengyao."

Min tried again. "No, you see no one has actually hired me yet and my name is actually..."

Miss Sato smiled wearily. "Oh, I you can believe that I heard about Mengyao. Well, you are right, you do need a replacement." Miss Sato now sounded contemplative. "It's gone on far too long without someone there."

"I don't feel that is our fault." Aoto said, as if at least one thing ought not be.

Miss Sato nodded, before turning to Min. "No, you're right. It hasn't been an easy process finding a fit. But enough grumbling about the past, what about you? How are you liking working with the staff?" Min found Miss Sato focusing warmly but closely on her. It was like being under a velvet wrapped magnifying glass.

Min stumbled over her first words. "Well. I mean it has gone good, I mean...I haven't actually done any work yet. I have just been sort of roaming around the building with all these different people even though I was just supposed to be going to the..."

Aoto interrupted, "She's actually the one who gave Chao the idea for the blind bidding, which though is a bit of hassle with the Verrik/C Corp situation I still think is a good concept."

Miss Sato concurred. "No, I agree that it will be best for the country. I actually suggested something like it at the last development conference but that all went nowhere." She smiled at Min. "So that's twice that you've saved these guys. Pretty productive for a first day."

Min felt that 'productive' certainly misconstrued a day in which she had been passed around like lost baggage at the train station. "I wouldn't say so, mam. Miss Sato. I just got shuffled around enough that I heard some things that not everyone else did. Honestly, a well organized memo system would do everything I could much better."

Miss Sato muttered to herself, "And I bet your system would not involve infesting the building walls with a swarm of hungry prairie badgers tied to strings."

"What?"

"Nothing. One of Verrik's business proposals got through my screeners to land on my desk yesterday. That man has more front companies that the Triads."

"Oh, I met Mr. Verrik today. He seemed..." Min searched for a word for what felt like far too long. "...innovative?"

Miss Sato gave a short laugh that almost edged into a snort. "Diplomatic and she survived Verrik? Yes, I think you should hang on to her, Aoto."

"If we can, Miss." He stood up, "Well I have to go make that phone call to Chao and another to the delegation. I promise you we will sort this mess out." He started to walk but stopped as his hat was handed to him. "Oh, I still have to tell the Avatar about all this. That just sounds so pleasant."

Miss Sato smiled. "Don't worry, her bark is worse than her bite." She then reconsidered.

"Well, no, it isn't. But she isn't going to bite you over this." She turned to Min who had gotten up to find her purse which then suddenly appeared back in her hands courtesy of the omnipresent Hangsook. Miss Sato said, "And it was very nice meeting you, Chan."

"It's actually..." She gave up. "It was very nice to meet you to, Miss Sato," Min said with a small bow, giving up on the fight and wondering with vague curiosity what her name-tag would end up saying. As she walked out heavy doors clicked shut behind her.

...


	4. Chapter 4

...

When Min arrived back at the Avatar's headquarters with Aoto she was immediately set to work. For the moment that seemed to involve carrying papers from one office to another. Seeing as she had no idea where anything was located in this building and half the time she just stumbled back into the Political Affairs office admitting defeat Min thought this was a particularly useless assignment. However, Aoto did never seemed perturbed by these repeated failures. It was almost as if he just wanted her to stay occupied for some reason. After several hours of this Min was working up the nerve to complain when Aoto handed her a stack of folders to be delivered to Mister Bolin in preparation for a meeting and for once gave her very detailed instructions on how to find him. After this day she was hurting for some small success to demonstrate her own agency, to herself if no one else, so against her better wisdom she took the proffered files and headed out into the labyrinthine halls.

A few minutes later Min faced a closed door, shuffling the stack of folders around in her arms until she found a hand free to reach for the handle. Inside the room, a long oval table ringed with about eight chairs filled most of the space. The few decorations that ornamented the walls and corners of the room fitted an eclectic and disjointed theme which suggested they had been received as unrelated gifts. Min moved to place the folder down at Bolin's designated place, only to realize that she had no idea where he sat. There was no indication of what seat belonged to which department head, or indeed any hint of assigned seating at all. 

_"All right, calm down Min,"_ she thought. _"You can figure this out. Lets see, the Avatar would sit at the end of the table, and people have been indicating to this direction when they speak of her so her office is probably somewhere out that door. At her right hand would reasonably be the political advisor, that's Aoto, and then on her left....Or wait, would the Avatar want to sit in the middle so she was closest to everyone?"_

Min did not have time to work herself deeper into madness since at that moment the sound of footsteps came through the open doors and the frighteningly intense Amishiq entered in side by side in conversation with some man in a White Lotus uniform who Min had not seen before. Min clutched her burden to her chest and backed to the far wall to stay out of their way but other than a brief flick of eyes they did not acknowledge her presence as they grabbed chairs and nonchalantly settled in without breaking their discussion. Well, this was her signal to get out. She could just place the files down in the middle of the table so whoever needed them could reach them and then high-step it back down to her pay-grade. Thinking of that, did this mean she had a job here? Was she just destined to be a permanent unpaid paper carrier, enslaved by her own inability to protest the assumptions of others?

She had just barely made it back to the doorway when she ran into Aoto on his way in. Min quickly backed up to let him into the room, and as she did leaned over to whisper, "I couldn't find Mr. Bolin so I just put them..." She noticed she still held the folders in her hand. "...I am _going_ to just put them down in the center of the conference table and get out of your hair."

Aoto was busy reading some typed message, peering over his glasses at some place where a misaligned key or lever had smudged the characters and had not looked up once, but he still caught Min's arm with the second blind grasp of his hand. "No, no, just sit down for a second and I'll take those off you."

"No, I think I should. The meeting must be about to...oh, if you... sure." Aoto's blind gesturing repeatedly bumping into her arm wore her down and so Min followed his lead, sitting very gingerly down in the most battered and unimportant looking chair with a perched posture that showed she was ready to leap up at any second. But Aoto was showing no sign of moving to relieve her of her burden as he promised, instead concentrating on reading his document and mouthing silent curses and exclamations at whoever the author was. Min belatedly realized that it was possible he had never actually looked at her face and thought she was his assistant Xiaxia or someone else who would actually have permission to be at this meeting. Two more people now entered the room in the form of Bolin and Chao, apparently at the tail end of some conversation.

"...but it turns out they didn't want any of it melted! Man, weirdest museum trip ever," Bolin finished.

The room was looking mighty full now and though Min could breath a thankful prayer that there had yet been no hint of motion from the Avatar's entry door she had to make her move quickly before her luck ran out. Resolved in her choice to flee Min breathed out a calming breath. That was when Chao shut the door to a resounding click.

Aoto put down his paper target of perusal and removed his glasses, breaking at once into official yet relaxed discussion. "All right people, what have we got today?" 

Chao tugged at his embroidered cuffs as soon as he sat down, straightening his ensemble. "Our statement on cronyism in Raiko's administration regarding the awarding of redevelopment contracts is ready to go out. I think you all heard we will be pushing them for a newly revamped blind bidding process. There is some concern of an information leak but it is handled for now. We think The Truth might be trying to scoop us, but the radio does not need to warm up presses to get the word out so I will be going on Shinobi's hour to make sure we get out front and maintain control of then message."

Aoto nodded in approval as he grunted. "If you are sure we are going to beat Verrik to the punch then there should be no problem there. It seems there is some confusion at least with Cabbage Corp regarding our own orders but that we should be able to straighten out without it mussing the press much. And this new line of attack might buy us time on other issues by distracting Raiko's office from the Avatar's citizenship question."

Now Bolin pitched in, "And we should be in line to get some pretty good press from helping out down in Chin. I actually managed to get in touch with a man at the University who did a fairly detailed hydro-whatgical study down there so I can be pretty confidant in our predictions in terms of flooding damage. Just supplying some trained benders and emergency generators should go a long way and not even be that expensive. And if we can get Korra down there for a few days or a week then all the better!"

Chao spread an accepting palm, "He's right more than he thinks. If we show up down there in a visible way it will most likely force the hand of the other Earth Provinces to pitch in with contributions, and not just the Unionists. The Separatists don't want any major stories of newly independent territories suffering for their isolation."

Amishiq added her view, "The only thing I am worried about is transporting the men and materiel. The bad press the Air Nation is receiving over enforcing their incomes has led to a small but worrying number of instances of people rejecting our use of Avatar Right to press passage. If we are looking to spearhead this aid mission instead of aiding an international effort then we can not count on hitching transportation on another national convoy like last time."

The new man the White Lotus uniform spoke as well "That is also my concern. This kind of small stumbling block with the captains is something that could easily snowball. Relying on the kindness of others to effectively conduct operations is inherently risky."

"Well, Yushin," Aoto said with the air of someone setting up a joke. "Your transportation worries are for now dramatically assuaged. Until we can sort some stuff out about a miscommunication with the Fire Lord we currently have possession of two airships." Whatever reaction he was hoping for he did not get, for Yushin's well-tanned face did not change except for the smallest twitch of one eyebrow.

"And what exactly are we going to do about all that?" Bolin said, "I mean, Asami put in a lot of effort to that ship because we asked her to. I don't think we can just short her on the money."

Chao had his own view to add. "Nor do I think it is wise to publicly turn down the Fire Lord's gift. Public opinion in the islands is already heavily divided on the issue of national contributions to our coffers. If we give their papers two weeks of stories on our ungrateful attitude then our finances will be in even greater trouble."

Amishiq sighed heavily. "Until we figure that out we need to scrounge up some funds for the initial payment to Future Industries. We have a contract, and we need to honor that. Someone needs to make sure that as soon as the paperwork gets sent over we get it back to them right away. Anyway, that vessel has been fitted out to Yusin's Lotus specifications so if we are turning one back it should be the Fire Nation's."

Bolin leaned back in his seat smiling. "Well, at least we caught this before both ships showed up here at the same time." He gave Min a hearty thumbs up. "Good job on that!" Then his smile fell as his brow furrowed and he focused on her. "Wait. Um, why is she sitting here?" Min had to admit this was a good question.

"Who, Chan?"

"No. I mean Lin."

"I thought she was Mei."

"You said she was Yin."

"I have never seen this woman before."

This babble brought on a long brewing explosion. "My name is Min! Min Liu and you people are the most disorganized bunch of jabber-jaws I have ever seen in my life! Honestly! It is surprising you have not accidentally gotten the Avatar to level the entire city! It is Min! It is not that hard of a name!" Min was proud that after this explosion she managed to not smash her face against the desk in embarrassment and frustration. Maybe they would just toss her out on the street. If she timed it right she could land in a roll and it should not hurt that much. At least this long farce would be over.

Amishiq blinked, "Well, she's already ahead of Mengyao. No one would confuse that with obsequiousness."

Bolin picked up on some meaning in that. "Mengyao? Oh hey, yeah. I can see her for that position. She seemed pretty ok with a helter-skelter pace of this place. It might work out."

Chao raised his eyebrow appraisingly. "She's got a pretty face, that might at least buy us a few days before she's out on her bottom. And from what I have seen she has something in her head to back up the moxy."

"And yet she also got approval from the Miss Sato," Aoto said with slight disbelief, "Which puts us ahead from the start. And we do really need someone there."

Min angrily thumped her hands down on the arms of her chair. "Hey! Either throw me out or let me try and reschedule my interview for the typing pool. You people may be fine with having me follow you around all day for not even a mu, but I came here to secure a fifty yuan per week job and I will not be leaving until I get my chance."

"Typist?" Chao looked genuinely confused. "That is not the job we're talking about."

Min crossed her arms before her, "Like I said, I was promised a fifty per week opportunity. I am not interested in your runner girl position."

Chao smirked. "Fifty? I think we can do better than that. You are going to be the Avatar's personal secretary."

Min was already opening her mouth but all that came out was a small squeak. "Excuse me?"

"The pay is, what, at least twice fifty per week? Although to be truthful I can not guarantee you will collect more than one week. We have been experiencing some high turnover in this slot."

Min desperately struggled to get her voice working again. "No, I think there has been some mistake. You see, I was told there was an opening in the typing pool. I have my typing certificate here in my..." She tugged at her purse but could not get her fingers to operate the clasp. "Well, I have it."

The man in the Lotus Uniform, Yushin, turned to Amishiq and said, "I had thought you said she was quick on the uptake."  
"Excuse me, sir!" Min interjected. "I take up perfectly fine. I was only trying to point out that I have no training in anything that would qualify me for being the Avatar's..."

Aoto shrugged, "What's to qualify? Just don't break when she starts yelling at you. You are already sitting in her chair during the senior staff meeting and that's half the job right there."

Min slowly looked down at the battered and scratched leather pads of her seat and then jumped up like it had been electrified. This resulted in the Avatar's own chair getting flung back just as the meeting room's door was forcefully flung open, resulting in a noisy collision. Xiaxia stood in the doorframe, blinking at the now rather more battered chair that was lying on its side against the carpet and Min who had her hands near her mouth in silent horror. Xiaxia elected to ignore all this and deliver her message to the senior staff. 

"There is a spirit in the main foyer. A very large one and one that seems rather agitated. No one has been able to figure out what it wants and it has started using its tentacles to steal every watch it sees. I thought the Avatar might wish to be informed."

Aoto got up. "Of course she should," he sighed. "I'll head over to the conclave wing to keep things running there while she ducks out. Yushin, she is going to want to talk to you when she gets out. Everyone else, um, good meeting I guess? One day we will actually get through one of these."

All the senior staff members hurriedly collected the things they had brought and started filing out. Min found herself once again lost and ignored. "Um, excuse me? I..."

Aoto waved distractedly over his shoulder. "And can someone show her to where her office is going to be?! Thanks, Xiaxia."

In her dazed state Min followed Xiaxia with a vague suspicion that she was going to be led out the front door of the building to the mocking laughter at her presumption of actually believing she would be made secretary to the Avatar. Honestly, she might have joined in with them. However, the doors they passed through did not lead to the street, but rather to large high-ceilinged office room holding two desks and what looked like a rather expansive waiting area of very high quality chairs and couches. Yet both those features were secondary trim to the large doors that sat in then middle of the far wall. They were decorated with ten thousand delicate metal strips of different colors forming a massive circle divided by a waving line that wrapped around the seam of the doors. At each corner around the circle sat the ancient symbols of the four bending disciplines. Everything about it said that no matter what your title was, there was only one heraldry that mattered. There were ten thousand years of history and only one Avatar.

Xiaxia spoke briefly and Min found herself looking up to meet eyes with the much taller woman. "All right, you will be working in here, just outside the Avatar's office. Your desk is the clear one over there. We actually thought the Avatar would end up needing two secretaries, but well, as you see we have had enough trouble getting her to accept even one." She noticed the slightly sickened look on Min's face. "But I am sure you will do fine!"

Min looked at the assortment of objects covering the unused desk which had apparently been turned into a temporary storage shelf. One thing confused her, it looked like a crumpled mess of thin metal pieces in a very squashed tin box that had been kicked until it was almost spherical. "Er, what is is that?"

Xiaxia cast a glance over from where she was laying things out on Min's new desk. "Hmm? Oh, that. The Avatar has been intending to learn how to type but there have been...difficulties, with the lessons." She saw Min's incomprehension and mimed a crushing motion with her hand. Min looked back at what she now saw as typewriter that had been nearly beaten back to its metallurgical origins and felt the fear rise back into her throat.

Xiaxia was speaking again, "All right, you have the Avatar's master schedule here, and a list of all the telephone exchanges on each line. The Avatar's phone goes straight to your desk and you can connect through any calls. Let's see, we'll have Yuki know that this desk is active again for correspondence and...Ok, I need to go get that from the office." Xiaxia headed off and Min followed behind, taking two steps for each of the other woman's rapid strides. The fact was that Min was several steps behind mentally as well and so had just gotten to the point of processing the phone system when she realized that they had just gone through those metal-bound double doors into the office of the Avatar.

If Min had been given time to imagine, she supposed she would have predicted grand decor similar to the outer room, or perhaps to Miss Sato's executive office. Instead the space was almost spartan; a wide but simple desk scattered with piles of paper in front of a window, a few unadorned chairs, and a bookcase in the corner beside another smaller table that was instead covered with books held open to various passages and illustrations. The other corner of the room seemed even more out of place as it seemed to have been lifted out of a gymnasium with a hanging bag and a large medicine ball that seemed to be deforming the floorboards beneath it.

"Ahh, here we go." Xiaxia said triumphantly as she lifted out a black bound ledger from under a precariously tall stack of paper that wobbled ominously on the Avatar's desk. "This should have the updated contact information for most anyone you will be interfacing with. If she asks for something not covered here, don't worry, just send it down to my office." She walked back through the big double doors. "Now for your first bit of training..."

At that moment a distant noise shuddered through the building. Xiaxia looked out into the distance with prayerful weariness. Min volunteered, "Maybe that was some of the construction?"

"It could be, but it isn't. Um, just stay here for a moment. I need to check in with the others and see what that was about. Just, uh, familiarize yourself with the area and I will be right back!" And with three rapid strides of clicking heals Min was left alone in the outer office.

For a moment she just stood there blinking at various patches of wallpaper. Next, feeling an unfocused desire to be productive she moved over to the desk and sat down in her chair. She was not actually any more productive there but at least she could slip off the shoes which after an entire day of being shuffled around on her feet were beginning to test her fortitude no matter how classy they were. She read the connecting pins on the phone bank, 'Avatar, Exchange, Public, Secure'. Simple enough. Looking under the desk there was a little typewriter tucked away which she got out to set on the desk and then promptly put away again. On the wall behind her there was a strange metal station connected to a pipe. Nearby was a collection of tubes in a wire basket. Fiddling with the metal pipe station led to Min getting a blast of air in the face and the knowledge that she had found the building's pneumatic system.

The phone rang and Min jumped, but eventually she managed to get back into the chair and pick up the receiver. "Hello, office of the Avatar!" she said as she franticly scrabbled for a pen and a pad of paper.

The man on the other end did not seem concerned with her identity. "Ah, she got a new one again. Ok, Legal needs to talk to the Avatar about the new bidding process before the end of the day."

"Er, yes, legal. Could I please get your name?"

The man sighed but complied. "Fang He. Fang as in 'to let go'. Just get back to me soon, tons of revised contracts are already coming in from Cabbage Corp and Future Industries."

"Yes of course I will. It looks like..." Min said as she hurriedly flipped through the pages of the Avatar's schedule. "It looks like she will be free at five twenty today. Although, I was actually in the senior staff meeting when they discussed this bidding issue and they only want to rush the paperwork on the airship order so we can make a hurried down-payment. The rest of the new bidding rules can wait to be implemented."

The man seemed about to say something else but at that moment the phone rang again startling Min incredibly since she was already holding the receiver to her ear. "I will deliver your message to the Avatar as soon as possible, Mister He. I hope you have a nice day!"

From there Min tried to pick up the call on the second line but in the process of disconnecting from the first call she somehow hung up on the second caller as well. Oh dear. That was no the most auspicious start but she supposed that if it was an urgent issue they would call right back. She hoped.

Unfortunately, this seemed to set a tone for the rest of the day. Xiaxia did not return and the calls did not slacken. Every so often there was a loud thunk behind Min's head and she had to retrieve a new mysterious tube addressed to the office of the Avatar from the pneumatic station. Her notepad was rapidly filling up with messages she could not understand that needed to be delivered to a boss who she had yet to see in person.

When the entry door finally opened Min looked up with hope and fear but the entrant was neither Xiaxia nor the Avatar but an older woman of Fire Nation blood with a very tight black bun and glasses hanging on a chain around her neck. She held a tied bundle of letters in her hands and a look of disapproval on her face. Min hurriedly finished the message she was recording as she started talking, "Ah, you must be from the correspondence office, Ms...." she flicked through the department list. "Naoshima?" she hazarded.

This earned her a sniff. "I am of the clerks. I simply saw that no one had been sent to collect the Avatar's correspondence so I added that destination to my trip here."

"Oh, Ms. Ogawa I apologize." Min said finding the correct name on the list as the head of the clerks' office. Then she looked up with a smile at the absurdity of her day. "It's funny, I was actually supposed to have an interview with you this morning for a position in the typing pool. Of course that is before Chao Wang nabbed me on my way into the building and..."

"Mrs."

"Pardon?"

"Mrs. Ogawa, and I have heard of you as well. I understand that in addition to missing scheduled appointments you are the girl who this morning suggested to Mr. Wang that future contract bids be conducted without regard for the name of the company?"

"Oh, yes!" Min said, looking back with fondness to one of her few successes on this day. "I had actually just been musing to myself and Mr. Wang took it for..."

Mrs. Ogawa interrupted once again. "Well, Legal was told to fast track the airship downpayment and since they are now not allowed to look at the name of the company they awarded our patronage to the newly cheaper Cabbage Corp bid instead of Miss Sato's Future Industries. The contract should have just come through the pneumatic."

"What?!" Min said. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! That is not right! I'll find that contract and..." She rooted through the pile of tubes until she found one containing a furled summery contract. "I will fix this!" She wrote in big characters across the front of the first page 'NOT THIS ONE, GET FUTURE INDUSTRY', and on the outside of the tube 'URGENT' next to the corrected destination before she shoved it back into the air pipe. She turned to her visitor, panting slightly. "You haven't by any chance seen Xiaxia? Aoto's assistant?"

Mrs. Ogawa set her burden of letters down on the desk. "No, I have not. Mr. Ishida's secretary is a very busy woman. You should instead worry about getting your own house in order." With one last sweeping look of disapproval she stalked back out of the office.

Min was drowning. Her notes had by now evolved into a new script and language as she struggled to deduce what was important about innumerable issues she could barely understand. There was no clock in here, and Min had unwisely listened to her mother that it was unbecoming for a woman to carry a watch so for all she knew the seasons had turned and turned until Vaatu triumphed and a new epoch began. It was at one point where she had resolved to just keep resting her forehead on the desk that a young man came into the office.

He swiped a cap off his head as he entered, "Hey, is the Avatar in?" He was wearing rougher clothes than the normal workers here, his shirtsleeves were rolled up and on his face was an uneasy grin but Min did not have time for him.

"No, she is not! No one is! If you want to schedule a meeting I have every slot filled up for the next week and I have no idea if I can even do that! Does the Avatar even exist? It could all be a myth propagated to explain away the downfall of Ozai and this Korra is just a media persona! This is seriously what I am thinking about why did they leave me here?"

The young man blinked. "Um," he said unsteadily. "Actually I am with facilities and just wanted to see if the Avatar could come lend us a hand tying up the airships. She helps us out sometimes with heavy lifting stuff. Says it relaxes her." 

Min took a deep breath. "Right. Sorry. As far as I know the Avatar is still dealing with a spirit world issue or the international conclave. I will tell her as soon as she gets into this office."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Ok. We managed to get the Fire Nation ship tied up all right so the other is probably fine but the Future Industries is probably a thousand kilos heavier. Then there is the issue of a three way pull and I am not really confident about our tower taking a those stresses. Never lashed up three at the same time before. I hope it's temporary."

Min said, "Yes, well it looks like it is going to be. Aoto Ishida is trying to do something about the Fire Nation ship and I am just glad we managed to get through to Future Industries after everything that has happened today." She briefly paused. "Lashed up three? What three are you talking about?"

"Oh, the airships? You know, the Steadylight, the Future Industries, and the Cabbage Corp."

Min felt the weight of the world creaking above her. "...There are three?! Three airships?!"

"Yeah, crazy I know, right?"

"But I... Oh peace, did Legal just completely ignore me? How did this happen? I sent the Cabbage contract right back explaining the mistake! I even typed up a clarification message and sent it right down through that blasted magic air pipe. Did the people in the sorting room just toss out everything I wrote?"

As Min made her way towards entering a state of hysteria the man from facilities slowly backed up, correctly intuiting her desire to lash out at whoever got within arm's reach. Min flipped through the directory, trying to find someone who might help her that she had not already called fruitlessly. She was growling to herself when she heard him speak up from across the room.

"Um, Miss?"

"What?"

He was standing behind the disused desk pointing at the wall. Or more precisely pointing at the pneumatic station mounted on it. "It looks like there are some tubes backed up in here." He reached over and with a hiss and a clunk he extracted one to see it immediately replaced by a second. Looking at the labels as he piled them up on the already overcrowded desk, he sheepishly raised his head to meet Min's eyes. "Yeah, these are all from you. I don't think anyone got your messages."

Min stopped and very slowly stood up. She walked across the floor, quiet in her stockings since she had never put her shoes back on. She spoke softly and calmly, there was no reason for this man to look so nervous as she approached him. "You mean to say that all day as I have been trying to fix this problem with the airships all my written messages have just been getting sent five meters across the room? That no one has gotten anything?"

"Well, I heard it was your first day and the system is kind of fiddly to get used to..."

"Fiddly!?" She yelled. "I have been mailing an empty desk that I could hit with a brick! Fiddly system! Why is that even a thing it can DO!?"

The outer door opened with a slam and someone said, "Great, and now there is yelling in here as well."

Min spun, ready to unleash her building outrage at any new target only to meet piercing blue eyes in a dark tanned face. The woman was only a little taller than Min but her muscle must have made her weigh half again as much and in presence she towered high above. She was wearing a blue patterned sleeveless formal outfit whose top two buttons showed sign of being hurriedly undone and a twitch of her calloused hands indicated that she hoped for the rest to quickly follow suit. Somewhere in the back of Min's mind the voice of her mother squeaked about unladylike presentation but it was silenced because you did not even think things like that about the Avatar.

Avatar Korra raised an eyebrow at the woman who had opened her mouth to berate her and then froze. "Hello to you too. Any chance I can get through to my office?" Min hurriedly scrambled out of the way. The man from facilities just gave the Avatar a weak wave. The Avatar was halfway to the metal bound doors when she stopped and turned back to Min. "And who are you?"

Min tried to find some moisture in her mouth. "I am the new secretary, Mrs Avatar mam, sir."

The Avatar groaned, "Great. Aoto does not give up. Or are you one of Tenzin's suggestions? No, wait, sorry, what is your name?"

"Lin! I mean Mei. I mean Min!" She wondered it was possible to die on command.

The Avatar paused to take this in. "All right...Min, if you want to settle on that, I...You aren't wearing shoes."

Min wondered if it was possible to make bystanders die on command. "No mam, I am not. I mean I have them. I own shoes." That was it, she was taking everyone with her.

"All right..." The Avatar turned and pointed at the doors to her office. "Right now I am going to go in there, strip out of these fancy duds, and then fly very far, very fast from this place full of diplomats who will take three days to decide on the type of ink to use while their nation is dissolving around them. It was nice meeting you."

She had actually reached the handle when Min called out. "Avatar! I actually have quite a lot of messages for you and I have not been able to get in contact with anyone from Aoto's office..."

"Look, shoe girl, that can wait, and it is going to wait because I am heading out right now." With that the heavy double doors were slammed shut, followed shortly after by the sound of a window opening and a rush of rattling wind. 

Min just had time to look around the room, utterly lost, when there was another gust of wind and the ornate door swung open just a crack.

The Avatar poked her head back in. "Why are all those airships hovering over my building?"

"Those are yours."

"All right." The Avatar's head retreated. Min started to breath before the tall doors burst open completely. The Avatar strode out. "Then I have a second question. Why do I have SO MANY airships?!"

"It's only three."

"This morning I had zero! That was eleven hours ago. What happened?!"

Min's only shield was the truth. She took a deep breath before beginning. "The Fire Nation delegation's Harmony Restoration anniversary gift came in the form of an airship instead of money, we needed to hurry up and give a downpayment to Future Industries because we are about to to reorganize our procurement process, and the third is a mixup with some paperwork I sent out that occurred in the last few hours and has not yet been corrected, likely sped along by Mister Verrik's aggressive business practices. I have been attempting to contact the appropriate parties but I just learned I have been using the this building's internal mailing system incorrectly."

The Avatar put her palm to her forehead with considerable force. "Great. The last guy wouldn't let me leave the office without wearing the right fancy shoes and now the new secretary managed to spend all our money on useless airships. At least now Aoto won't be able to give me grief about firing this one. We were doing just fine without all these extra people."

Min had had enough. "Avatar mam, meeting you is the most awe inspiring moment of my life but you are being very, very stupid." The Avatar looked at her incredulously and the facilities boy in the corner tried looking up at the ceiling. Min twisted back and forth, gesturing with her arms out to her sides. "This huge building is running on a shoestring staff! Your people can barely manage their normal schedules without the type of sudden interruptions which are absolutely going to pop up. They are holding their meetings in the halls! There isn't even anyone assigned to employee training, which I know because I have been trapped in this room for four hours! You are quite possibly the busiest person in the entire world and you are refusing to accept even a single secretary. That is so stupid!"

At this point in the tirade the outer door clicked open and the familiar voice of Aoto came through. "Well she's going to have to if...What's this?"

"Be quiet Aoto, I am being fired." Min turned back to the Avatar. "And one more thing! Those airships are not useless. If we could find a way to pay for them we should take all three. Our cash flows are very uncertain so needing to pay for commercial flights at every opportunity is risky, especially with also having to raise money for aid missions. Not to mention the fact that insisting on Avatar Right to secure those passages is incurring protest from all sorts of people who we should be winning goodwill from. The Avatar is supposed to be above nations and businesses, not bumming rides from them!" Min's outrage finally ran out of steam. Her shoulders sagged.

"All right, you can kick me out now. Sorry, Aoto." But then she pointed back at the Avatar. "But before you run out that window again, Ms Avatar, you are going to help that young man tie up those airships since I suspect he is also severely understaffed like the rest of us and you are endowed with phenomenal cosmic power as well as frankly amazing shoulders. Your revised schedule for the next week is on the desk over there."

Min spun and stalked over to that same bit of furniture that had so shortly been her desk to retrieve her shoes and her purse. Now shod and still not looking up from the carpet at the silent room she headed over to the exit and found it blocked by an unmoving Aoto. She whispered, tired down to her very soul. "Please Aoto, just let me go home."

Behind her the Avatar chuckled, but it was not mocking. There was a warmth, an undercurrent of recognition. "She said 'we'. A lot. Looks like she's already on our side wether we want her or not. All right you can go home Min, but you are going to have to wait until I get back from mooring those airships so you can go through the schedule with me. I'll get someone to go over the pneumatic system with you tomorrow, although in my own personal opinion that device is mostly poorly designed sorcery. Aoto, come with me, we can talk on the way up to the roof." The Avatar stripped off her fancy top to reveal a simple undershirt, carelessly tossing the silk article onto the crumpled typewriter before make her way in quick confidant strides to the door.

Min was frozen in her same position. "Um, what?"

Aoto patted her on the shoulder. "Welcome to the team. I'll see you tomorrow."

And then Min was alone again. But now she was in her office. She wasn't entirely sure how that last encounter had worked out but she supposed she had at least secured a line to a paycheck this week. She sat down at her desk to calm the shaking the adrenaline had left in her veins. And now she actually had nothing to do. Well, she supposed she could sort through the mail. That was a simple enough task and if what she had seen of the Avatar's office was any indication then her boss needed every bit of organization that could be provided. It would be very simple task, the very second letter wasn't even addressed correctly. The poorly scrawled characters addressed it to the office of the Avatar but the name given was Miss Asami Sato. The envelope had a slightly sticky patch on one side which was presumably how this had gotten mixed in with the screened mail.

Min grabbed a letter opener to slide open the top and verify that this was not simply some poor honest farmer who had gotten his names of Republic City notables mixed up. Either way she could make sure it got to its proper destination.

It read, "To Asami Sato..." All right, she had the Miss' personal address right here, she could slip it in a new envelope and send it on its way. At least she knew better now than to try and use the pipes. She could hand it off on her way out of the building. "...You will pay for your sins." Wait, what was that it said?

"...the blood of benders drips off your filthy name...the Avatar will be protected from your corruption...This city will be saved. Prepare to die."

Oh. This might not be simple.  
...


End file.
